America Wants to Gay Marry the Phrase “Gay Marry”

Mark Peters takes a look at the linguistic and cultural meanings behind America’s favorite new idiom: “gay marry.”

You know, as in…

“‘I going [sic] to do unspeakable things to this sandwich. Like gay-marry it.’
June 23, 2009, Alison Agosti, Twitter

‘@everythingpre I’m so in love with Universal Search I might just try to gay marry it. Sigh.’
June 9, 2009, Gary Gaston, Twitter

‘Had to waylay. See, I’m a dirty whore for salsa. I’d gay-marry salsa if it was legal. When I run out of chips, I resort to drinking it.’
May 15, 2009, Andrew Kiraly, Las Vegas CityLife Blogs”

Peters discusses why he believes the acceptance of the term “gay marry” points to a growing comfort with the idea of same-sex marriages in general in his most recent post at GOOD: “In Slang, to ‘Gay Marry’ Is Legal.”

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Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and was once given a sword by a king, thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals. Formerly of The Rumpus and McSweeney’s and most recently the founding editor of BuzzFeed Books, Isaac is now the co-host of BuzzFeed News’ Twitter Morning Show, #AMtoDM. He also appears frequently on The Today Show to talk books, and is co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (with Recipes) (winner of an IACP award), and the author of a YA novel and picture book forthcoming from Bloomsbury. He uses Twitter.

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